


foment

by TheFreakWithTheWings



Series: Word a Day [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Winter War (Bleach)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 04:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17400137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFreakWithTheWings/pseuds/TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: foment: to promote the growth or development of"Kurosaki-kun, we're going to help you foment your soul so that you can get your powers back!"





	foment

Everything starts with Orihime finding an idea in a book of fiction about souls and deciding that it actually sounds pretty smart. She had lost the book somewhere between her cookbooks - coming up with her tasty recipes is hard work! - and her physics books on relativity - if her powers work by denying reality, then doesn't it make sense for her to understand how reality actually works to get the most out of them? - before she could show it to Ishida or Chad, but the thought sticks with her. The idea had been that, even if a soul is damaged, spending time with friends and family and doing other things that bring the person joy will eventually repair the soul to its original state, or even help it grow even further. Now, everything she's learned about souls says that the idea isn't true, but she regularly rejects the rules of reality in order to heal the wounds of her friends. Kurosaki's hurt may not have come from any physical wounds, but it is impossible to deny that he is hurting, and she doesn't think his father's insistence that they keep him from being involved in Soul Society business for his own safety is helping.

Even if her idea doesn't work to begin with, well, then she'll have to _make_ it work.

The look of surprise and delicate hope on Kurosaki's face when she drags Chad and Ishida to eat lunch with him on the roof - with Tatsuki's help - and declares "Kurosaki-kun, we're going to help you foment your soul so that you can get your powers back!" makes her even more determined to succeed.

His face twists a little as he processes her words. "How is fermenting my soul supposed to help me with my powers?"

" _Foment_ , Kurosaki," Ishida sighs. "It means to promote the development of something."

While Kurosaki digests the revelation, the rest of them sit down around him in a circle and strike up a conversation about recent Hollow activity, making sure to ask his opinion about it as they eat.

"So how's this supposed to work?" he finally asks when lunch is over.

"It was Orihime's idea," Tatsuki says. "She thinks that your soul will heal better if you spend more times with friends. Speaking of which, how do feel about a spar?" She cracks her knuckles menacingly. "Or did all of that time spent learning how to use a sword mean you're too chicken to fight without one now?"

Tatsuki's taunt works beautifully. By the time they reach their classroom, Kurosaki is bickering with her about karate versus kendo, and the difference between kendo and zanjutsu, and also how he was never formally trained in either of them. Much of the brittle tension to his shoulders, which had lingered in grown in the days since he'd lost his powers, has dissipated like dust in the wind.

Next time Kurosaki-sensei came around and told her to stay away from his son for his own good, Orihime was going to aim Tsubaki right at his face.

**Author's Note:**

> The way that Orihime decides to repair souls comes from the Dresden Files, where souls work a lot differently, but I thought it was a really great and it kind of fits with how Ichigo's mental state was after the Winter War.


End file.
